While intensive peels are great for fast results, sometimes our skin is just not up to the task. I did a blog post explaining different purpose, ingredients and usage of peels here. It’s hard enough to decide with every brands having their own peels, but some have multiple and how are you suppose to figure out which is which??? Well today, we will be talking about all four peels from Philosophy!

My first experience was with the Resurface Microdelivery Dual-phase peel and I really liked it, which prompted me to try and figure out what’s the difference between all of them. The star of today’s post are……*drum roll*…….

Philosophy Resurface The Microdelivery Dual-Phase Peel

Philosophy Detoxify The Oxygen Peel

Philosophy Microdelivery One-Minute Purifying Enzyme Peel

Philosophy The Microdelivery Triple-Acid Brightening Peel

And the names are so long!!! What’s the point of naming something Microdelivery if you are going to name 2 other product with it, too?!?!?! But anyways, the peel itself is more important.

Resurface The Microdelivery Dual-Phase Peel

Description: “This revolutionary duo works together to resurface skin and replenish it with essential vitamin C and peptides. The Vitamin C/Peptide Resurfacing Crystals gently rejuvenates and revitalizes as the Lactic/Salicylic Activating Gel helps to minimize the appearance of pores, fine lines, and wrinkles while providing a secondary exfoliation.”

My take: You first apply the Vitamin C crystals to the face, this light yellow scrub have very fine grain, very much like Fresh Sugar scrub except not oily/as emollient. Left image below show the Philosophy scrub and the Fresh Sugar scrub. The scrub have a very mild, slightly fruity sweet scent. It is a very thorough and gentle scrub. After applying it to the face, you then apply the Activating Gel over it. When the gel is applied on top, it foams up a bit and you get a warming sensation on the face. The gel have a plastic-y chemical scent, but it is not that strong.

This dual-phase peel is great for surface exfoliation, dull or flaky skin, and give your skin a vitamin boost to help it glow. It make the face super smooth, but for underskin acne/white/black heads, it is not as effective as more intensive peels. This is a good combination of physical and chemical exfoliant. It is thorough but gentle. Now, if your concern is more blemish than flaky skin, then read on…..

Microdelivery One-Minute Purifying Enzyme Peel

Description: “Discover this gentle yet effective formula, designed to perfect skin texture and tone for an overall glow. This unique blend contains lactic and salicylic acids, combined with natural enzymes and a fruit acid complex, to deeply exfoliate the skin and support natural cell turnover. The result is enhanced brightness, clarity, and firmness; and reduced pores, lines, and wrinkles. ”

My take: This is an enzyme gel with no grains that you apply to clean face. It didn’t have much of a scent and may have a mild sting when applied, but it doesn’t really hurt and the feeling doesn’t last. The skin does not immediately feel smooth after rinse off, but the day after, I notice the whiteheads dried up more so it does help to purify/refine skin texture. It reminds me a bit of Ole Henriksen Lemon Strip, but a tad milder.

This is great if you want a simple and quick peel, your result may vary. If you are looking to get rid of flaky skin, the dual-phase would be a better choice. If you’ve got very sturdy skin then this might not have much of an effect, and you might want to check out a more intensive peel, or the Philosophy Brightening Peels instead.

The Microdelivery Triple-Acid Brightening Peel

Description: “See brighter days ahead with the Microdelivery Triple-Acid Brightening Peel, created to deliver superior results in one convenient step, at home and with zero downtime. It includes 12 individually-wrapped, pre-saturated chemical peel pads designed for weekly use.”

My Take: I only got 1 peel pad as a sample and didn’t buy or try more, so I can’t really say much about it. It’s a smooth and sturdy cotton cloth, there is very very mild stinging when applying, or none depending on your skin type. It does make the skin smoother and more refined, I can’t speak to the brightening claim with only 1 pad, but otherwise it’s a good peel pad. With that said, a package of 12 will last you….less than 3 month, that’s kind of expensive. And it’s very similar to the Bliss peel pad, which have a more textured surface but otherwise works the same way. Origins Modern Friction peel pad is more scratchy and DDG Alpha Beta is gentler.

Detoxify The Oxygen Peel

Description: “The Oxygen Peel is a two-step in-home peel that brightens, clarifies, and detoxifies the skin. This unique, long-standing customer favorite bathes the skin in oxygen while rapidly exfoliating, smoothing, and hydrating the skin. The peel helps relieve congested and blocked pores, buffer fine lines, and minimize the appearance of large pores. The result is radiantly clear and beautifully bright skin. ”

My take: This peel out-complicates them all! Not only is it two step, you have to do stuff and wait in between. There are four items: pill of powder, jar of cream, empty jar, and a scraper. Get the empty jar, or something similar big enough to hold 2+ tablespoon of water (I just used an empty .5oz jar here). You open up the capsule and dump the powder in, fill it with 1 tbsp of warm water, the warmer the better, then shake it and wait 1 minute. It will be a clumpy white cloudy gel. You apply that generously over the skin, then apply the white cream over it. There’s a bit of foaming action and there’s really no scent from the powder or cream. Lastly, you scrape it off with the included spatula/plastic stick. Yes you can rinse it off, but depending on how old/prone to clogging your sink is, it may not like the very very thick cream. I rinse my face thorough after I scraped off the majority of it.

If you have a layer of dry/flaky skin, this don’t really work well. If you exfoliate beforehand, this works better since it’s able to penetrate deeper. The Philosophy rep I talked to said that the capsule gel gets less effective the more it sit, which is why you should only open a capsule and make the gel when you plan to use it, and why it’s more effective if you do it 3 days in a row. That’s what I did and I don’t really feel anything at all, so I think even the most sensitive skin can do 3 days in a row with no problem. Since I didn’t feel anything I assumed it didn’t do anything, until I tried it on a small section of my hand, and look at the skin color difference! Fortunately it went back to the original color after 30 seconds and you can’t see the difference anymore, but it’s definitely doing something. Enough effect to convince me to buy a full size to try and examine further.

Conclusion

If you like exfoliation to be mostly physical with a chemical/antioxidant boost, then try Resurface Dual-phase. If you are looking for something purely chemical, then try One-Minute Enzyme Peel. If you have sensitive skin and wants something more of a detox or purifying nature that does not dry out the skin, then try the Oxygen Peel. If you are usually too lazy to exfoliate or want something simple, then the Peel Pad is a great choice. You just need to gently rub it on after cleansing, then apply moisturizer and you are done! I like the scrubbing action, so my favorite of the bunch have to be the Resurface Dual-phase peel, followed by Oxygen Peel, which has piqued my interest.

Wow! That is such a great review over all the peels! I’m interested in the Dual Phase Peel now. It’s a little pricey, but i’ll keep it in mind if i’m ever ready to make a splurge for a new peel/exfoliator!